A Gentle Rebuke

“ONE DAY IN CALIFORNIA I saw a cardinal walking with pomp and ceremony in front of a procession,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told an audience in Denver on October 29, 1912. “I was told that a new church had been built and the cardinal was to officially open its doors to the public.” We don’t know precisely who the cardinal was, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s secretary, Mahmúd-i-Zarqání, wrote that this Catholic leader had previously singled out ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as a false Christ. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá decided to juxtapose the life of this religious leader with that of Jesus.

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“This show and ceremony of the cardinal is like that of Christ,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said. “However, there is a slight difference.” He began to enumerate the elements of this disparity. “Christ had a crowd following Him, but they were there to hurl contempt and abuse at Him. This cardinal had a crowd with him but they are there to help. Christ had a crown but it was made of thorns, while this cardinal wears a crown set with lustrous jewels. Christ had clothes but they were made of old, coarse cloth, while this man’s robe is made of the finest brocade of the day. Christ spent His days in sorrow, while this cardinal’s days are spent in security and comfort.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá had argued to audiences across America that self-sacrifice had driven the progress of humanity down the ages. When he spoke with Bahá’ís — followers of his father’s religion — he was uncompromising in the standard of conduct that he expected from them, often holding up Jesus’s Apostles as their example. “I am expecting results from this visit,” he told a group of Bahá’ís at the Hotel Victoria in Boston on July 25, “and hope that my coming may not be fruitless. The results I expect are these: that the individual soul shall be released from self and desire.” He told them to replace “avarice, envy, love of luxury and comfort, haughtiness and self-desire” with resolute self-sacrifice.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s father, Bahá’u’lláh, had written a similar message to Pope Pius IX forty years earlier. “Sell all the embellished ornaments thou dost possess,” he told the Pope, “and expend them in the path of God.” “Should anyone offer thee all the treasures of the earth, refuse to even glance upon them. Be as thy Lord hath been.”

In Denver, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá turned the same lens on this particular cardinal: “Christ’s home was a desert,” he said, “while this cardinal’s home is a splendid building, like that of a king. Christ’s throne was upon a cross, while this man’s place of rest is a throne of ease and comfort. The adornment of Christ’s banquet was the blood of that beloved countenance, while the ornament of this man’s court is the goblet of colored wine.”

‘Abdu’l-Bahá concluded with a humorous touch. “This cardinal’s display is similar to that of Christ,” he said, “with only the slightest differences.”

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http://twitter.com/pascalmolineaux pascal molineaux

Alas, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s light-hearted criticism of the Cardinal’s “double-talk” was dead right. It is so easy – and frequent – to assume, from one’s position of power or leadership – that one are inherently “better” than others, that one’s way of seeing things and decision-making is “better informed” than others. The Cardinal, in this story, is an epitome – which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rightly takes on – of those who believe they are somewhat above the rest, who believe they have certain inherent rights to condescendingly speak of others, who are so imbued in their own righteousness they fail to see that the world around them is not quite as they see it. I happen to know a few people who fit perfectly the Cardinal’s description here.

Loie Mead

Pascal, I wonder as I remember the puppet show that Baha’u’llah viewed in His childhood and later described. Baha’u’llah “told of the occasion when He attended the wedding celebration of one of His brothers in Tihran. As was the custom in Tihran at that time, a great feast was held for seven days and nights. On the last day, a puppet show about a famous king was performed as entertainment for the guests. Baha’u’llah sat in an upper room overlooking the courtyard where a tent had been set up for the performance.”

Baha’u’llah was greatly puzzled by the puppet show and when the curtain was drawn at the end He inquired of a man carrying a box, “What is this box?” The man’s answer “made a great impression upon Baha’u’llah, and He has declared that:”‘…ever since that day, all the trappings of the world have seemed in the eyes of this Youth akin to that same spectacle. They have never been, nor will ever be, possessed of any weight, though it be to the extent of a grain of mustard seed…Erelong these outward trappings, these heaped-up treasures, these earthly vanities, these amassed battalions, this gorgeous finery, these proud and overweening souls–all shall pass into the confines of the grave, as though into that box. In the eyes of those possessed of insight, all this conflict, dissension and vainglory hath been, and will ever be, like unto the sport of children.'”

We know that dear ‘Abdu’l-Baha was with Baha’u’llah in prison. The story of the puppet show shines through ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s words about Christ and the cardinal. (I found the account of the puppet show in “The Twin Manifestations” or Ruhi Book 4.

239 Days In America

A social media documentary following `Abdu’l-Bahá’s 1912 journey across North America in real time, exactly 100 years later: April 11 to December 5, 2012.

Today's Quote

Consider what Christ accomplished. He caused souls to attain a station where with complete willingness and joy they laid down their lives. What a power!